Sortilege
by butterflie
Summary: This is being rewritten as Stigma. It's not yet available on ffnet, see my profile for info. Yamato stumbles across something he was never meant to see... and now it seems someone may be determined to end his life, at any cost. Taishiro, Kenkeru, Daikari.
1. Prologue:Forbidden Cruelty

  
  
Disclaimer: Digimon is not mine. 'tis Toei's! So don't sue me, please. I need the money for college.   
  
Author's Notes: Ah, what the heck. I might as well give it a shot. If it doesn't work, you guys can just shoot me, okay? I give you full permission. Anyways, you should all be used to this by now if you're a regular reader, but this story has **angsty Yamato and Taito**. Ah, good times, good times. And no, this is not a rapefic or a cutfic, for once. I know, it _is_ quite amazing. But I wanted something different, something you don't see much in fanfics, and I had the idea and it was begging me to write it. So I'll try. Well.. anyways..   
  
**Sortilege**  
by: _butterflie, formerly known as Crimson Goddess_  
Prologue - Forbidden Cruelty   
  
"Curse you, Nyusumi," I muttered under my breath, as I shifted the weight of my guitar to my other shoulder. "Only you would insist on holding band practice until one in the morning."  
I was tired and cranky, and all I wanted was to just get home as quickly as possible and sleep. Band practice had not been fun tonight. Ratsuii was in a bad mood, Kenji was high on energy and annoying the hell out of everyone-as a result, Ny got irritated and made us all work longer. I'm sure his neighbors will thank him for it in the morning, too.  
I walked as quickly as my guitar would let me, taking all the shortcuts I could. I'd just turned down an alleyway when I heard the beginnings of someone's muffled scream before it was cut off. Without even thinking about it, I continued on down the alley, my steps cautious and hesitant. "Oh God," I moaned. My knees buckled and I dropped my guitar case as I got close enough to see what I'd heard. I watched in frozen horror for a few moments, not believing what I was seeing and not really wanting to.  
He looked up just then, and at one look at his eyes, I yanked up my guitar case and ran, dragging the damn thing along the ground, only wanting to get out of there as fast as possible before it happened to me. The image of the bleeding, mutilated naked girl he'd just killed was burned on to my eyes, and I kept seeing her as I ran.  
I was just running into the apartment building when I bumped into someone. I hit the floor hard, my banged up guitar case flying halfway across the lobby. "Oof!" I lay there, the breath knocked out of me, terrified out of my mind, unable to get that poor girl out of my head. That guy murdered her, in cold blood he'd murdered her. Stabbed her with a knife and then taken the knife to her body, destroying it.. My stomach lurched then, and I only just managed to not bring my dinner back up.  
"Yamato?" I looked up at the man I'd bumped into. It was Dad. "Yamato, are you okay?"  
I opened my mouth to assure him I was fine, no problem here, just not watching where I was going. My mind, however, had a different idea.  
I started to cry.   
  
Prologue fin   
  
Author's Notes: So, there it is. Interesting, huh? Real short. It's just a little teaser, not very well written. Should I continue? Is it utter crap that I should trash, right now? Let me know, okay? I named the fic after a song by The Seeker, one of my favorite ...well, two person bands. 


	2. Chapter 1:The Drama Starts from Here

Author's Notes: Ah, what the hell. I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work out, no big deal. Work on this will probably be slow at first, as I'm graduating today, the 23rd of May, and the first month of summer will be spent cleaning and packing and getting ready to move out. What fun. I can't wait. I love sarcasm. Anyways, this has.. mmm.. Taito and Kenkeru. Wow, Kenkeru. I know, I practically never write it. It also has, of all things, Daikari. That probably wouldn't ever work out, but I wanted to write it. If you don't like it, bite me. This fic also deals with the dark theme of murder, sort of indirectly. If you don't like it, turn back now, okay? Good. As long as that's straight.   
  
**Sortilege**  
by: _butterflie, formerly known as Crimson Goddess_  
Chapter 1: The Drama Starts from Here...

Dad managed to get me into the apartment without much mishap, save for our nosy neighbor across the hall who was always poking her nose out the door and into business that wasn't hers. I swear she never sleeps, she justs wait for something interesting to butt into. Luckily, Dad told her in no nice terms to buzz off. He sat me down on the couch, told me to sit tight, and then went back downstairs to retrieve my guitar before someone walked off with it.  
When he came back, guitar in hand, I'd managed to stop crying and calm down somewhat. However, I was no less terrified. What I had seen scared the crap out of me. Murder is rare in Japan. There's something like 40 deaths a year. One of the lowest murder rates in the world. The United States has the highest, of course. So to come across a murder in process is quite a shock, to say the least.  
And the guy saw me. That's what scares me. I'll never forget the look in his eyes when he looked up from that poor girl's body when he'd finished with her. I'm sure the image of me watching him is as branded onto his mind as his sitting there holding the bloody knife over her is branded onto mine.  
Dad put my guitar down by the couch, and went to get me a glass of water. I took it from him, but my hands shook when I held it, splashing drops of water out on my legs and the carpet. So instead Dad took it and held it up to my mouth, and I managed a few swallows. He placed the glass on the inn table beside the couch and then sat down next to me. "What happened?" he asked, sounding concerned.  
I didn't respond. What could I say? What was I supposed to do? What was I expected to do? There were suddenly so many questions, and I had answers for none of them. I'm a witness to a murder, and not only can I identify the murderer, the murderer can most likely identify me. Would he come after me? Is it safe to say anything, or should I play dumb and pretend to know nothing? Having never been faced with a situation even remotely like this before, I was lost.  
"Yamato?" Dad asked gently. "What's wrong?"  
I shook my head, eyes filling up with tears again. What did I say to him, how could I appease him? Why did Ny have to insist on holding that stupid band practice so late anyways? If he'd ended it earlier, I could have been home hours ago, and still innocent of the murder to take place. But no, he had to keep us until some ungodly hour. Why? And why did I have to come across it? Why couldn't I have went home the normal way? I'll curse myself for that forever.  
"Do you not want to talk about it?"  
Another shake of the head. I tried my voice. "No," I whispered. It sounded horrible. Guess I wouldn't be speaking for awhile.  
Dad let out a small sigh, but it didn't sound exasperated or anything. It was just a sigh. He stood up, and held his hand out to me. "Come on. You should get some sleep, then. It's late."  
I merely nodded, and let him pull me to my feet. I walked to my room, his eyes watching me with worry as I went.  
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked before I disappeared. I shrugged, but I knew the answer was no. I would not be okay. I will never be okay again. Life as I know it is ruined. I went into my room and shut the door behind me, making sure to lock it tight. Then I climbed into bed, not bothering to change, and pulled the covers up to my chin. I left the light on, too scared to turn it off. I stared at the ceiling, lost in thought, until the first rays of the dawning sun began to peek in through my room. Only then did I allow myself to close my eyes and sleep, certain I'd be safe in the daylight.  
  
My sleep was short-lived, and completely restless. About two hours after slipping away into sleep, I woke screaming from a nightmare, bringing Dad running into the room, scared out of his mind for me.  
"It's okay, it's okay," I gasped after I'd stopped screaming. Shit.  
"What is it, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly. "You were screaming."  
I tried to control my heavy breathing. I was probably about as terffied as dad at this moment. "I'm sorry, it was just a bad dream, I didn't mean to scare you..." I wiped my forehead, which was covered in sweat. Yuck.  
"You want to tell me about it?"  
Sure. I was being tortured and murdered. I shook my head and threw back my covers. "No," I whispered to him.  
He frowned, wanting to say more, but knowing me well enough to know that I don't talk when I don't want to.  
"Well, you want something to eat?"  
I raised my eyebrows. "Please don't tell me you cooked something."  
He laughed. "I'm not _that_ bad of a cook!"  
I didn't say anything, just looked at him pointedly, thinking of all the blackened pans I'd had to throw out and replace over the years.  
He gave me a mock sigh. "Okay, fine. I can't cook."  
"I know, 'tousan. It's okay, I'm not that hungry anyways. I'll make myself something later, alright?"  
"Well, are you sure?"  
"Of course I'm sure."  
"Alright then.. I'm off today, so I'll be here if you need me, okay?"  
"Okay," I said, as I stood on shaky legs and tried to wake up. I waited until Dad had left the room and shut the door behind him, then went and locked the door and leaned against it. I sank to the floor and closed my eyes, fighting tears, trying hard not to think about the awful nightmare I'd just had. It had been so intense that when I woke up my body ached in sympathy.  
I was really in a huge mess and I didn't have a fucking clue what to do.  
And to make matters worse, I not only had another band practice, I was supposed to go out with Koushiro and Taichi to see a movie today, and now I was too terrified to leave my house. What if I saw that guy again? I mean, surely, he must have a normal life outside of murdering girls, right? He's probably got a house, a job, maybe a wife and kids he goes home to. And surely he doesn't stay in that house and only go out when he wants to murder people. Right? Right?  
Fucking hell.  
....Maybe I could get Dad to drive me over to Taichi's, and have Taichi get Mrs. Yagami to drive us to the theater, and then pick us up when it's over... except that of course they'd all want to know why, and I wouldn't be able to give them a plausible reason. Damn.  
Maybe I could fake sick?  
No... I tried that once, and I wasn't very good at it.  
Maybe I should just go, and not worry about it. Come on, what are the odds of me ever seeing that guy again? And anyways, if I do I'll be with Taichi and Koushiro, totally out in public, so it's not like he would try to kill me there or anything. Right? Right. of course.  
I wish I felt more sure about it. 

He watched as the blond boy walked into the theater with two other kids. One had huge spiky brown hair, and he seemed to be rather close to that one. The other kid had red hair and was walking slightly behind the two, looking sort of frustrated.  
His eyes narrowed. That was the same kid, he was sure of it. He'd gotten an excellent look at him last night, and there was no doubt in his mind.  
Dammit, what had the kid been doing out that late night anyways? And walking through an alley of all places, as if he had no common sense to speak of.  
He wondered if there was some way to find out who the kid was. He waited as they paid for their tickets and headed towards the concession counter. He dragged the mop closer to where they were and pretended like he was mopping the floor, even though he'd just done that thirty minutes ago. But now he was close enough to hear their conversation.  
"Taichi, you know this movie is three hours long, right?"  
"So?"  
"So? So why are you getting so much junk? You'll just have to leave halfway through the movie."  
"But I need food!! You know how hungry I get, Koushiro!"  
"Just leave him be, Kou. There's no stopping him at movie theaters. He's going to get what he wants no matter what you say."  
"Thank you! See, at least Yamato's on my side!"  
"Actually, I think you're a bottomless pit that could stand to eat less. You're going to get fat."  
The redhead laughed, and the one called Taichi scowled. "Shut up, Ishida. At least I don't spend three hours obsessing over my hair!"  
"I don't spend three hours!! It's more like twenty minutes..."  
He'd heard enough. He put the mop back in the bucket and walked off.  
"Ishida Yamato, huh?" He murmured. "Now where have I heard that name before...?"   
  
_Chapter 1 fin_   
  
Author's Notes: Yes, I know. It's short and not very interesting. I was going to make it longer, but I figured I'd go ahead and get those out for you so you guys would know that I'm going to continue this. The next chapter will be really long to make up for it, I promise. Though it might be a while before I can get it finished. Anyways, hope at least some of you enjoyed this! Oh, and about the formatting of this... I apologize. Lately ffnet has been a real asshole, and they've changed a whole bunch of stuff. There are supposed to be more spaces than this, I'm sorry. I know it's hard to read.  
  
Dorama wa korekara....


	3. Chapter 2:And I'm All Mixed Up

Disclaimer: Digimon is not mine. I wouldn't mind owning Full Metal Alchemist though... or Tidus from Final Fantasy X, for that matter. 

Author's Notes: someone asked in a review what "dorama wa korekara" Literally, I suppose it's more like "Drama from now" but in a more loose translation, it was the Japanese for the title of the previous chapter XD; It was um.. sort of.. taken from the Pocket Monsters song Lucky, Lucky by Shinichiro Miki. That song is really funny, I couldn't help myself, I had to use that line. The title for this chapter is a line from Tatu's "All the Things She Said". Probably most of the chapter titles will steal song titles. And I beg you, please read the notes at the end of the story, they're important! 

Sortilege  
by: _butterflie, formerly known as Crimson Goddess_  
Chapter 2: And I'm all mixed up 

"Yamato, have you seen Takeru?"  
This was the greeting I got as I walked in the apartment after spending the last few hours over at Taichi's. My stomach twisted. _Takeru's missing._ I frowned. Now where the heck did that thought come from? That was stupid.  
I shook my head at 'tousan. "No, not lately. I've been sort of busy. Why?"  
Now he frowned. "Well, your mother said that he hasn't gotten home from school yet..."  
_Takeru's **missing**._ I growled inwardly at myself. Enough with the stupid paranoid thoughts.  
"He probably went over to a friend's house and forgot to call her. Has she called Hikari or Daisuke? Or he could be at Ken's, though he doesn't usually go all the way out to Tamachi.."  
"I don't know. I'll call her and let her know to check." He went over to the phone, a worried look on his face, then picked it up and started dialing Natsuko's number.  
_He's missing, he's missing_, my mind insisted on taunting me. Takeru never forgot to call Natsuko if he went over to one of his friend's houses. And it was six 'o clock. He didn't stay out this late.. _There's a first time for everything. So he just forgot, for once. Doesn't mean he's missing._  
I watched 'tousan anxiously as he talked to Natsuko on the phone, explaining to her what I'd said. Eventually he hung up the phone and turned back to face me, looking a lot more calm. "Apparently he walked in the door while I was on the phone. You were right, he was over at his friend Ken's and just forgot to call her."  
"Oh, that's good. Though he usually doens't forget..." _See? False alarm. You're too paranoid, Yamato._ Hmph. Inwardly shaking my head at myself, I headed back to my room to start on my homework. _Just a false alarm. Takeru's safe._

Another night, more hours of sleepless worrying. It had been a week since I'd witnessed that awful scene late that night in the alley, and I probably hadn't had more than a combined ten hours of sleep total. Mostly I kept stressing out about whether or not to tell what I'd seen. I'd been watching the news, and of course that poor murdered girl had been found by now. Her name was Ogawa Yuniko, and she'd been just fourteen when she was killed. Her parents were also important government people in some way, and so of course the media and police were making a big deal out of it. The parents were even offering a reward for anyone with information about the murder, not that I particularly cared about that. I was mostly just worried about Takeru and myself. I mean, it was probably irrational of me to do so, but I couldn't help it. After all, it had been a week, and except for that brief scary moment when we thought Takeru was missing, everything was fine. No scary murderers lurking in the shadows waiting to kill me. No strange phone calls demanding ransom or silence about what I'd seen in exchange for my brother's life. No weird threatening letters in the mail, no stalkers trailing my every move. I was just paranoid. Really. It had been late at night, and dark, and whoever he was, he was probably intent on finishing what he'd started and then getting the hell out of here. _Just because I've actually seen his face clearly doesn't mean he's seen mine._ I tried desperately to convince myself of that fact, though I couldn't really make myself believe it.  
But then again, I _did_ know something about the murder. Was I doing wrong by not going forward and telling what I knew? was it better to report it, or to keep my silence and hope that'd be enough to protect those I cared about? I didn't know, and I couldn't even hope to know, or have someone tell me what to do. I was in this all alone, and I was rapidly drowning. I only hoped I could keep my head above everything long enough to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do next.  
There were a couple of times when I'd almost told Taichi. I wanted to so bad, to not have to keep this horrible secret alone, to have someone to tell me what they thought I should do, to comfort me and reassure me things would be alright. But no matter how times I opened my mouth to come out with it, something always held me back. Fear. Fear of him somehow knowing, fear of him coming after Takeru or myself, or my friends, as if he knew exactly who I was and who I cared about. Of course, it's not like it was that hard to figure out who I was. The band was on the verge of going major very soon, my face was practically plastered all over the whole of Odaiba. Anyone with half a brain could take one look at me and know I was Ishida Yamato, lead singer of the Teenage Wolves. If you lived in Odaiba and didn't know that by now, you were probably out living under a rock somewhere.  
I sighed, restlessly turning on my side for the fifth time in the past half hour, and closed my eyes again, begging my stupid mind to shutup and let me get some sleep, even if it was just a few hours worth. Tomorrow I'd promised to spend the day with Takeru, going wherever he wanted. So I had to try to sleep, no matter how useless it might have been. 

_Of course Takeru would want to go see the movie I just saw last weekend._ Oh well. The movie had been good, so I supposed I could sit through it a second time for my little brother's sake. We walked to the movie theatre together, chatting easily about what was going on in our lives. I was shocked to find out my brother was dating someone, and even more shocked when he told me who it was. "You're going out with _Ken_?" I'm sure my eyes were about bugging out of my head.  
Takeru frowned at me. "What's wrong with that? Ken's nice, and I like him. I like him a lot."  
I saw immediately that I'd hurt his feelings. "I'm sorry Takeru, I didn't mean it like that. I just thought you and Ken weren't that close friends. And I guess I always assumed you'd end up with Hikari. But not that there's anything wrong with you and Ken together," I added hastily.  
"Hikari's going out with Daisuke," he told me shortly. "Anyways, Ken and I have been good friends for about a year and a half now. I kinda.. stopped hanging with Hikari so much when she started dating Daisuke."  
"Oh, I see," I replied, though I didn't really. Why he would stop being friends with Hikari and Daisuke just because they were going out was beyond me. Surely he wouldn't let that come between a long-time friendship...  
We got to theatre, and I insisted on buying both our tickets, as well as whatever snacks he wanted. He protested a bit at first, but settled down when I promised to let him buy the next time we went.  
It was when we were walking down the hall to the theatre room our movie was playing in when I saw him. I stopped dead in my tracks and almost dropped my popcorn. He was next to the wall across from us, cleaning up some spilled soda and popcorn mess when we went past. He didn't look up, for which I was grateful. I didn't want him laying his eyes on Takeru if I could help it. It was bad enough that Takeru was in close proximity with him. If the bastard looked up, I was sure he'd recognize me. And it wouldn't be that hard to realize Takeru was my brother, we looked well enough alike that it was easy to tell.  
"Yamato?" Takeru asked questioningly, and I wanted to yell at him. My eyes darted back to the guy, risking a glance. He still wasn't paying attention to us, so I quickly shepherded Takeru into the theatre and down the aisle a ways. He looked surprised at the sudden but gentle pushing, yet wisely didn't say anything. He seemed to sense I didn't want to talk about it, whatever it was. I couldn't have been more grateful.  
"Here, find us some seats," I instructed him, handing over popcorn I no longer wanted. "I'll be back in a minute."  
"Wha-? But Yamato, the movie's starting soon! You'll miss it! Where are you going?"  
But I was already heading back out of the theatre, and didn't answer him. I had to see, had to make sure. Had to know that really was the guy I saw in the alleyway, had to know that I wasn't paranoid and going crazy. Pushing open the theatre doors, I calmly walked back out into the hallway, trying to look as if I just needed to go make use of the restrooms. I glanced around the hallway as I walked, wanting one more look. But it was too late. He was already gone. 

He watched the two boys as they went past him. It was definitely the boy from last week, the same one who'd come upon in the alleyway that night. Ishida Yamato, lead singer of the Teenage Wolves, fast gaining popularity, about to go major. Oh yes, he'd done his homework well. This time the Ishida boy was with a younger boy who looked much like him. It was most likely his younger brother. Takaishi Takeru, aged fourteen, living with their mother Takaishi Natsuko. He'd done his homework very well, alright. It always paid to know as much as possible about the witnesses. And soon, he'd do his best to ensure that this particular witness didn't talk. Yes, soon indeed. 

_Chapter 2 fin._

Author's Notes: Ok, so here's the deal. I left ffnet back in July (see my profile or the story Waiting at ffnet for details and a link to my new place), but since no one seems to realize that, and because everyone keeps begging me to update this, I've decided to go ahead and continue updating Sortilege here. Once Waiting is finished, which should be sometime within the next few months, I'll re-upload the whole thing at once here. But anything new that may come after that, whether it's a new story or chapters to stories previously uploaded here, will all be uploaded at my fanfiction livejournal. Also, I know you guys want more of this, and I'm sorry for not updating in five months, and I'm sorry the chapter isn't long like I promised, but honestly, my life has been hell. At one point I was seriously thinking it'd be nice to not be a part of this world anymore. And really, life is still hell, so if anyone reads this, please understand why I won't be updating Sortilege very often. I haven't forgotten it, and I'm certainly not going to abandon it, it's just that I haven't found very much within me to care about writing. But all that aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, which I suppose was more of a transitional chapter than anything else. The real drama should be in the next chapter. And the Taito and Kenkeru will become more apparent too. Well, actually I guess it's TakeKen, but whatever. If you feel like leaving a review, I thank you. Take care, and ciao for now. 


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